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The simplest way to invest in stocks is to buy exchange traded funds. But investors can boost returns by picking market-beating companies to own shares in. For example, the Frenkel Topping Group Plc (LON:FEN) share price is up 40% in the last year, clearly besting the market decline of around 14% (not including dividends). That's a solid performance by our standards! On the other hand, longer term shareholders have had a tougher run, with the stock falling 15% in three years.
Check out our latest analysis for Frenkel Topping Group
While the efficient markets hypothesis continues to be taught by some, it has been proven that markets are over-reactive dynamic systems, and investors are not always rational. One flawed but reasonable way to assess how sentiment around a company has changed is to compare the earnings per share (EPS) with the share price.
Frenkel Topping Group was able to grow EPS by 17% in the last twelve months. This EPS growth is significantly lower than the 40% increase in the share price. This indicates that the market is now more optimistic about the stock.
The graphic below depicts how EPS has changed over time (unveil the exact values by clicking on the image).
We know that Frenkel Topping Group has improved its bottom line lately, but is it going to grow revenue? You could check out this free report showing analyst revenue forecasts.
What About Dividends?
It is important to consider the total shareholder return, as well as the share price return, for any given stock. The TSR is a return calculation that accounts for the value of cash dividends (assuming that any dividend received was reinvested) and the calculated value of any discounted capital raisings and spin-offs. So for companies that pay a generous dividend, the TSR is often a lot higher than the share price return. As it happens, Frenkel Topping Group's TSR for the last year was 44%, which exceeds the share price return mentioned earlier. This is largely a result of its dividend payments!
A Different Perspective
It's nice to see that Frenkel Topping Group shareholders have received a total shareholder return of 44% over the last year. That's including the dividend. That gain is better than the annual TSR over five years, which is 0.6%. Therefore it seems like sentiment around the company has been positive lately. Someone with an optimistic perspective could view the recent improvement in TSR as indicating that the business itself is getting better with time. While it is well worth considering the different impacts that market conditions can have on the share price, there are other factors that are even more important. For instance, we've identified 3 warning signs for Frenkel Topping Group that you should be aware of.